Alternat
The alternate is a term from international treaty law .
meaning
The term comes from the Latin verb alternare ("to alternate"). Alternat means that in the respective originals of an international treaty the contracting party for which the respective original is intended is named first.
Alternat refers to the change in the sequence when the contracting parties are named in direct succession. The different language versions of an agreement are irrelevant.
This is why the original text of an international treaty intended for Germany states:
- Agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Swiss Confederation on mutual assistance in the event of disasters and serious accidents
In the original intended for Switzerland, however, it says:
- Agreement between the Swiss Confederation and the Federal Republic of Germany on mutual assistance in the event of disasters and serious accidents
use
The alternative is usually only used for bilateral (bilateral) contracts. In the case of multilateral contracts, the contracting parties are usually listed in alphabetical order of the country names in the respective language version.
In multilateral treaty texts of the European Union , the sorting according to the so-called absolute alphabet appears: each country moves to the place where the state name in the name of the national language belongs ( ... Danmark, Germany, Eesti, Ελλάς ... ).
Large and small alternate
A distinction is made between the large and the small alternate: The large alternate alternates throughout the entire text of the contract. In the small alternate mostly only the title of the agreement and the initial and final formulas are alternated. In practice, the large alternate is usually used.
purpose
In Alternat the conviction of international law comes from the formal equality of the subjects of international law expressed. The alternation reflects the equality of states, which is the basis of modern international law .
literature
- Foreign Office : Standard formulations for German treaty texts . 4th edition. Berlin: De Gruyter 2004, p. 23 (= Terminological Series issued by the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany; Volume 4) ISBN 3-89949-205-6
Individual evidence
- ↑ BGBl. 1987 II p. 75
- ↑ http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/i1/0.131.313.6.de.pdf
- ↑ Dan Lohmeyer: Pre-formed structures in a specialized type of text. A contrastive analysis of the German and French versions of the EC Treaty. Master's thesis 2002, p. 57